Buckminster Fuller developed the Dymaxion Deployment Unit, or DDU, as an inexpensive, factory-made shelter for people displaced by World War II.
After seeing photographs of Londoners made homeless during the Blitz, Fuller recognized that the round, corrugated-steel grain bins made by Butler Manufacturing could be adapted into emergency housing.
His plan required very little alteration to Butler’s existing equipment, which meant the shelters could be mass-produced quickly and shipped in sections. The DDU was intended for bombed cities, military installations, temporary worker housing and disaster relief. Fuller also believed it could serve as an affordable permanent home after the war.
The standard unit was about 20 feet across and 12 feet high, with galvanized-steel walls and a shallow conical roof. It had porthole windows, small roof skylights, fiberglass insulation, wallboard lining and a thin Masonite floor. A ventilator at the center of the roof helped circulate fresh air without complicated machinery. Inside, a fire-resistant curtain could divide the circular space into several wedge-shaped rooms.
A fully equipped version was advertised at about $1,250, including simple furniture, a stove and an icebox. Extra units could be connected through openings in the walls, and Fuller proposed a separate mechanical pod containing the bathroom, water storage, fuel tanks and septic equipment.
The whole concept reflected his goal of providing the greatest amount of shelter with the least material, labor and cost.
The first complete prototype was publicly demonstrated at Haynes Point in Washington, D.C., in April 1941. A second prototype stood in the Museum of Modern Art’s sculpture garden from October 10, 1941, through April 1, 1942.
The U.S. Army Signal Corps reportedly purchased several hundred units, which served as quarters, workshops and equipment buildings at bases in the United States, North Africa, Italy, the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf and the Pacific during roughly 1942 to 1945. Production ended early in the war when the government reserved steel for weapons, aircraft and vehicles.
EDIT - Follow up on the remains of some of these units: THE NECESSITY OF RUINS: The Lost Dymaxion Deployment Units of Buckminster Fuller: https://alastairgordonwalltowall.com/2014/05/09/the-necessity-of-ruins-the-lost-dymaxion-deployment-units-of-buckminster-fuller/
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A Yurt
But cooler!
Probably hotter😀
Nah, they had insulation. Air conditioning would keep it nice and cool. And ya could paint it lighter colors. Had vent and fan ports too. Army guy lived it in and no complaints.
My dad grew up in a steel prefab after the WW2 era. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefabs_in_the_United_Kingdom
oh interesting. What did he think of it? Because I see a big use for stuff like this when it comes to the house problems facing many here in the US.
He didn’t mind it. We went to visit the remaining ones they have on a heritage site. Everything was built right in, like kitchen counter was just an extension off the wall etc.
He mentioned the rain could be loud hitting the panels. And some of the steel stamped edges were a bit sharp. And steel window frame and window almost chopped his finger off when it fell
I was wondering about the rain noise! lolol It does seem like that would be loud. And hail…oh man! lol
And some more details from Alastair Gordon’s site:
The DDUs were perhaps the most rudimentary of all Fuller’s prefab housing schemes. They were simple and inexpensive, with ideal specs for wartime production, made from galvanized metal, with Masonite floors and fiberglass insulation.
The idea originally seeded itself in Fuller’s mind during a road trip he took through the Midwest with his friend, the novelist Christopher Morley. Fuller discovered something else while driving back to Chicago through the Illinois farmland. He became fascinated by the metal grain bins that stood at every farmstead along the way, and learned that there were made by the Butler Manufacturing Co. of Kansas City.
Fuller began to envision how the Butler grain bins might be converted into emergency housing for the victims of war-torn Europe. The idea was to retool the production of Butler’s “Long Life” steel bins–“Safe from Fire, Rats, Weather and Waste”–and turn them into bomb-proof shelters for the masses.
Their design allowed Butler to use existing dies and required no factory retooling, so the transition into production was relatively seamless. By early 1941 Fuller was making presentations of his “grain-bin house” to the Division of Defense Housing Coordination and other potential clients.
I personally think these could, and should, still be manufactured today for inexpensive housing. I’m a huge fan if Mr. Fuller’s work and I own several books about him. Love the way he thinks.
